Jacobin Club

The Jacobin Club was the most influential political club during the French Revolution, with over 500,000 members during its height in the 1790s. Founded in 1789 on the Rue St. Jacques near a Dominican monastery in Paris, it was a left-wing group of radical extremists who carried out the Reign of Terror, killing over 41,000 people who were considered to be counter-revolutionary, royalist, or enemies of the state. On 27-29 July 1794, the club ended during the conservative Thermidorian Reaction, which saw all of its members be executed or driven into hiding. Until 1799, it made a few unsuccessful attempts to regain power, none lasting for more than a few months.

History
The Jacobin Club was founded in 1789 by Antoine Barnave, Jacques-Francois Menou, Maximilien Robespierre, and a few other Parisian bourgeoisie who sought to overthrow the injustice of King Louis XVI of France and create a republic that was devoted to liberty, equality, and fraternity. The club was so-called because it was on the Rue St. Jacques, near a Jacobin (Dominican Order) monastery. The Jacobins were originally very popular because they were at the forefront of the French Revolution, and in January 1790 they opened up to foreigners and all citizens of France. They also declared their goals: to discuss questions to be decided by the National Assembly, to strengthen the constitution, and correspond with other societies within the same realm.

At the start of the French Revolutionary Wars in September 1792, the Jacobins supported revolutionary activities at home but opposed war with the Austrian Empire, Prussia, Spain, Great Britain, and the United Provinces. During the wars with the other European powers, the Jacobins began a series of intrigues at home. They perpetrated the September Massacres of 1792, in which Captain Frederic Rouille headed to Le Grand Chatelet and massacred all of the prisoners and guards; people in other places around France followed this example. In addition, they were responsible for the withholding of food from the peasants in October to make it seem as if the monarchy was hoarding food for themselves. These plots increased the anger against King Louis, and in January 1793 they executed him.

While King Louis was executed, a new era in French history began, a dark one: the "Reign of Terror". The Jacobins were at the forefront of these events, in which ordinary people would be arrested and either guillotined or executed by firing squad for not following revolutionary reforms, opposing the government, having sympathies for the royalists, or for other reasons that made them "enemies of the state". Noblemen and priests were the majority of the executed, while average people were also killed. Robespierre used his spy Didier Paton to rat out hundreds of Parisians, although he failed in his attempt to have Paton guillotined in Le Grand Chatelet due to his knowing too much. Also in 1793, the Jacobins were able to destroy the Girondists, a moderate faction that harbored much of the opposition to Robespierre's reforms. Their leaders were killed, despite leading Jacobin Georges Danton's opposition. It would not be long before Dantonists were, too, erased.

Jacobins became renowned for their extremist and radical views on left-wing government. Jacobins would go up to people in the streets and stab them if they were considered to be political enemies, and this was perfectly acceptable at the time. Tens of thousands died in Paris and the countrysides of France, and by the Terror's end in July 1794 over 41,000 people had been killed.

On 5 April 1794, after discovering a picture depicting him as "the New Tiberius" in Danton's personal letters, Robespierre had Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and other Dantonists guillotined for treason. He was now the full leader of France through the terrorist Committee of Public Safety, and was guarded in the Hotel de Ville government building by soldiers of the Paris Commune. On 27 July 1794, after Robespierre made a new list of political opponents to be executed, the National Convention declared Robespierre an outlaw and the Paris Commune in open rebellion against the government of France.

The Jacobins were suppressed on 27 July 1794 when National Convention troops arrived at the Hotel de Ville and found Robespierre with a gaping shot wound in his jaw from his pistol. Robespierre was unable to speak and was taken into custody. The next day, he faced revolutionary justice under the guillotine alongside much of the Jacobin leadership. Benjamin Deschanel and the last of the Jacobins planned to flee from their hideout into the tunnels in the catacombs of Paris, where they would escape to the countryside. However, Theroigne de Mericourt and a large crowd stormed the hideout and the Jacobins were killed before they could escape Paris.

Although the "Thermidorian Reaction" of July 1794 all but defeated the Jacobins, some people were still sympathetic to the movement. In a war of sticks and chairs, Jacobins were attacked in cafes by young students, and the Jacobins continued small attempts to regain power until July 1799. They regained power in France by supporting Napoleon Bonaparte in the 18 Brumaire coup of 1799, and many became government members under Bonaparte in the 1800s.